Reseña de: Commentary to Tatiana Seijas’ review of The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons: Circulation, Market, and Consumption of Asian Goods in the Spanish Empire

El presente texto es un comentario y réplica a la reseña escrita por Tatiana Seijas en New West Indian Guide (94, 2020) asobre el libro de José L. Gasch-Tomás titulado The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons: Circulation, Market, and Consumption of Asian Goods in the Spanish Empire (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2019. 258 pp.).

Hospitalisation rates differed by city district and ethnicity during the first wave of COVID-19 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Background It is important to gain insight into the burden of COVID-19 at city district level to develop targeted prevention strategies. We examined COVID-19 related hospitalisations by city district and migration background in the municipality of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Methods We used surveillance data on all PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 hospitalisations in Amsterdam until 31 May 2020, matched to municipal registration data on migration background. We calculated directly standardised (age, sex) rates (DSR) of hospitalisations, as a proxy of COVID-19 burden, per 100,000 population by city district and migration background. We calculated standardised rate differences (RD) and rate ratios (RR) to compare hospitalisations between city districts of varying socio-economic and health status and between migration backgrounds. We evaluated the effects of city district and migration background on hospitalisation after adjusting for age and sex using Poisson regression. Results Between 29 February and 31 May 2020, 2326 cases (median age 57 years [IQR = 37–74]) were notified in Amsterdam, of which 596 (25.6%) hospitalisations and 287 (12.3%) deaths. 526/596 (88.2%) hospitalisations could be matched to the registration database. DSR were higher in individuals living in peripheral (South-East/New-West/North) city districts with lower economic and health status, compared to central districts (Centre/West/South/East) (RD = 36.87,95%CI = 25.79–47.96;RR = 1.82,95%CI = 1.65–1.99), and among individuals with a non-Western migration background compared to ethnic-Dutch individuals (RD = 57.05,95%CI = 43.34–70.75; RR = 2.36,95%CI = 2.17–2.54). City district and migration background were independently associated with hospitalisation. Conclusion City districts with lower economic and health status and those with a non-Western migration background had the highest burden of COVID-19 during the first wave of COVID-19 in Amsterdam.

The “Phantasmatic” Chinatown in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “The Chinese Empire” and Mark Twain’s Roughing It

This chapter explores Chinatown as an ephemeral site of visual indeterminacy in the 1870s by looking at a number of Californian Chinatown accounts in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “The Chinese Empire” (1878) and Mark Twain’s Roughing It (1872). Late-nineteenth-century Chinatown as an exhibitory locus of authentic Chinese-ness for Western tourists is paradoxically characterized by its mutability rather than realism. By examining the accounts of Jackson and Twain about the Chinese in the 1870s, the decade before the passing of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the paper rethinks the “virtual” existence of Chinatown, its contested nature as a “phantasmatic site” for Western projections and visual consumption, which manifests the potential realization of national transformation in the mythic Orient of the new West.

Edutocracy: A Model of the New West Indian Plantocracy in Barbados

This work draws on a combination of three theories, dependency (economics theory), the inner plantation as a socio-psychological construct, and plantation pedagogy (education theory) to develop its own educational theory called edutocracy, as a partial explanation of the failure of the West Indian education system in Barbados. It employs document analysis as its primary method of data collection and analysis and culminates in the construction of a model of edutocracy. Edutocracy reveals how the current West Indian debate surrounding educational reform of the Secondary School Entrance Exam in Barbados and neighboring islands will, like most previous reforms, net little meaningful change if legislators and educators continue to negate the impact of the socio-historical context on education in this region, specifically the deleterious colonial ideologies which continue to shape education for the Afro-West Indian/Barbadian with the interests of the Euro-American metropole as paramount.

Hospitalisation rates differed by city district and ethnicity during the first wave of COVID-19 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

ABSTRACTBackgroundIt is important to gain insight into the burden of COVID-19 at city district level to develop targeted prevention strategies. We examined COVID-19 related hospitalisations by city district and migration background in the municipality of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.MethodsWe used surveillance data on all PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 hospitalisations in Amsterdam until 31 May 2020, matched to municipal registration data on migration background. We calculated directly standardised (age, sex) rates (DSR) of hospitalisations, as a proxy of COVID-19 burden, per 100,000 population by city district and migration background. We calculated standardised rate differences (RD) and rate ratios (RR) to compare hospitalisations between city districts of varying socio-economic and health status and between migration backgrounds. We evaluated the effects of city district and migration background on hospitalisation after adjusting for age and sex using Poisson regression.ResultsBetween 29 February and 31 May 2020, 2326 cases (median age 57 years [IQR=37-74]) were notified in Amsterdam, of which 596 (25.6%) hospitalisations and 287 (12.3%) deaths. 526/596 (88.2%) hospitalisations could be matched to the registration database. DSR were higher in individuals living in peripheral (South-East/New-West/North) city districts with lower economic and health status, compared to central districts (Centre/West/South/East) (RD=36.87,95%CI=25.79-47.96;RR=1.82,95%CI=1.65-1.99), and among individuals with a non-Western migration background compared to ethnic-Dutch individuals (RD=57.05,95%CI=43.34-70.75; RR=2.36,95%CI=2.17-2.54). City district and migration background were independently associated with hospitalisation.ConclusionCity districts with lower economic and health status and those with a non-Western migration background had the highest burden of COVID-19 during the first wave of COVID-19 in Amsterdam.

Four new West Palaearctic species and new distributional records of Hybotidae (Diptera)

Megagrapha starki Barták & Grootaert, sp. nov. (Poland, Russia, Slovakia), Oedalea portugalica Barták & Grootaert, sp. nov. (Portugal), Hybos conicus Grootaert & Barták, sp. nov. (Greece, Turkey), and Platypalpus obscuroides Barták & Grootaert, sp. nov. (Slovakia) are described and illustrated. Diagnostic characters are discussed. The female of Syndyas merzi Shamshev & Grootaert, 2012 is described for the first time. New distributional records are presented: Megagrapha europaea Papp & Földvári, 2001 is first reported from Slovakia and Syndyas merzi Shamshev & Grootaert, 2012 is first reported from Turkey.